June 19, 2026, by Chris Tully, for First Tracks Cumberland
(Joe Shaw photo)
CUMBERLAND, ME – The Pine Tree State’s top trotters meet once again for another big Saturday card at Cumberland Raceway on June 20, which shall witness local trotter Little Macabee moving up in class and positioned outside another local star Brutalizer.
The featured $6,400 NW5000 Trot appears to be a match in the making as the 9-5 morning line favorite Brutalizer seeks his fourth win of the year, having never been worse than third in all nine of his seasonal outings. Trained by Sara Harrington and driven by Andy Harrington, the 5-year-old son of Alarm Detector finally gets some post position relief, which may give him the trip he likes.
Little Macabee won last week’s contest by a neck over the aforementioned Brutalizer in a thrilling stretch drive. Trained by Eric Bickmore, the 12-year-old son of Chapter Seven has also been a good earner for owner Maryann Tompkins and just went over $300,000 lifetime and now has 47 wins. He is listed at 3-1 from post five with Dave Ingraham at the controls.
Inside both of those guys is Ghetto Boy (2-1), a horse who has been quietly moving up the ranks with two wins and three seconds in his last five outings. Trained by Courtney Pitts and driven by Hunter Lofthus, the 8-year-old son of Cantab Hall has four scores on the season and possesses the fastest seasonal mark of all the trotters in race seven.
On Saturday, the exotic wagering action starts with a Pick-5 in the opener, then the Pick-4 is set for the last four races on the program (races 9-12), and the Pick-3 begins in race ten, and all boast a low 16% takeout. In addition, the 20-cent Superfecta is available in races four, six and eight, along with a Pentafecta in races five and the finale.
Looking ahead to the following race date, the Maine Sire Stakes for sophomore trotters sees two $14,000-plus divisions going postward on Sunday (June 21). The first is a 12:00 noon early non-wagering race for a troika of 3-year-old trotting colts and geldings. The second $15,486 division carded as race seven lines up six distaff trotters for their divisional debut. Last year’s freshmen trotting filly champion, Pembroke Lady (2-1, Heath Campbell) has rightfully been given the chalky nod. With $99,140 earned and eight wins for trainer Valerie Grondin, the daughter of Pembroke Slugger was bred by the late Bill Varney and is now owned by Brenda Varney.
First Tracks Cumberland will continue with Saturday-Sunday cards for the remainder of the month of June. During July the schedule reverts back to Friday-Saturday, with the exception of the three day run from Fri., July 24 through Sun., July 26 during the penultimate weekend of the meet.
First post is 12:15 pm (EDT) during the extended pari-mutuel meeting, which runs through August 2.
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